


Arbitrium

by PlateOfChickenAlfredo



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Diary/Journal, The Red War (Destiny)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:33:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28588062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlateOfChickenAlfredo/pseuds/PlateOfChickenAlfredo
Summary: Cyon writes about his experiences as a resistance fighter during the Red War. A fateful choice will prove to be a tough one to forget.





	Arbitrium

It almost feels like the Red War never happened. Everyone moved on so quickly. All that death and destruction and nobody really talks about it anymore. It’s a way of life, especially now I guess. People want to forget the bad stuff. Put another bad memory aside to make room for more that’s to come.

I don’t. It’s the least I can do.

In the city time flew by fast. Honestly I’m still taken aback whenever I’m reminded how long the occupation lasted. Everyday there was something for us to do, something to keep you from sitting on your ass and doing nothing. Even if you could, worrying about being blown out of your bunker or flamed out of your scouting position was enough to keep your mind buzzing over whether or not this moment would be your last.

That happened a lot in the beginning. We were all still green to fighting underneath the enemy’s feet. Taking the fight head on with our light? Easy, but this was completely different. Adapting took time and lives.

We got our shit together eventually. Got organized. Got smarter. Oiled the machine and made it a quiet killer. Less people got killed. More people wanted to fight. We were picking off Cabal and destroying the toys they had left and right, disappearing into the shadows before they had a chance to react. We were rats, but you give a rat no other options and, well, you realize how much you underestimated a creature so small compared to you. It almost felt like we’d win this just by ourselves. Who needed outside help?

The thing about war is that both sides learn from how the other operates. There were attempts by the Cabal to flush us out but we were much too lodged into the dark corners of the city. Sacrifice was one thing but suicide didn’t sit right even on the grunt’s tongues. Their leaders knew that, so they wised up. 

How they managed to find out who our prominent leaders were and whoever was connected to them I have no idea. Beat it out of some people I guess. They grabbed some random people to sweeten the deal too. Husbands, wives, parents, even children, paraded up and down the ruined streets while the Cabal blasted how they wouldn’t hurt them as long as their respective counterparts lay down their arms and came out. They knew we were watching. They knew this wasn’t something we could raid, not without them killing the hostages first.

I didn’t have many close people at the time. The small handful I did have made it out of the city by the time it fell, but two fellow leaders didn’t have the same convenience. 

Emily had two kids. We only saw one.

Sven-6 had a wife.

Were the Cabal smart? No. They just realized that human compassion was a thing that could be exploited.

There was a lot of talk of whether or not the two would crack. People grew unnerved. If they left, would they talk? The Cabal had to have some sort of trade off for the safety of their loved ones. Should we lock them up? Jump the gun to minimize risk? I knew they’d lay down their lives to see the city free again, but what about those they cared about?

Sven was the only one that I knew before the invasion. Burly titan. Brash, loud, and a smart guy. He never took no for an answer and always tried to be the hero. Typical titan stuff, y’know?

Did a lot of scouting missions together. He liked to be outside the walls. Said that nature soothed his mind from all the crap. Couldn’t blame him. I felt the same way. Still do.

He was like that for a while. Always watched my back when I needed it. We’d be out there for days, weeks sometimes, looking for new people that somehow made it this long outside the city. It was dangerous work but we were like glue. Kept stealing my jokes that I made out there though. Cracked them at the bar we’d go to after a day’s work and would get the whole place up in a roar. He was such an ass, but he did give a damn good delivery.

So, dear reader and cache looter, friend, lover even, why have you never heard about him until you’ve feasted your eyes on this piece of paper?

Things changed when he met Martha. She was a sweet gal. Compassionate, smart, witty, and hot, obviously. Everything a guy could want in a woman. From the day he met her he’d never shut up about how much he was into her. I was gonna shut his trap myself if he hadn’t started skipping out on scouting. It didn’t take a genius to figure that Sven would get stuck to her like metal to a magnet. Eventually, to no one’s surprise, he stopped leaving the city at all. Wanted to make sure he’d be safe for her.

Marriage, whatever counts as a honeymoon these days, a few years later and here we were, stuck in a half collapsed building watching his wife with a gun to her head.

We all thought Emily would be the one to bail. That was her kid out there after all. She never said why she didn’t until it was all over. She wouldn’t let her children be used to get information from her just for the both of them to die anyway. She never found the kids’ bodies, but she found her peace down the barrel of a gun.

Sven was adamant about going to the Cabal. He kept saying that we could turn that to our advantage somehow. I shot him down every time, but we both knew what he was really thinking. He only got more irritable with each time I told him no, saying I was going to let a lot of innocent people die by doing nothing. Maybe if this happened before the First Great Siege I would’ve felt cocky enough to put my people out there like cannon fodder like the Vanguard did. We almost lost everything trying to retake the city so recklessly like that. 

Around the 50th time he asked I was getting fed up with his demands. People die in war and we have to live with it. I didn’t like saying that to him. It left a bad taste behind, and by the look on his face it was like I stabbed him in the heart. 

He went off on his own a lot more. Everyone I sent after him to keep an eye on him always got caught and scared off. I ended up taking the job. 

Most of the time he’d visit the same spot and just sit. It’d be the cafe where he met Martha. The whole place was a wreck, hole blown right through the heart of it. He’d be at the counter for hours, motionless, not making a sound. I’d never seen him like that. My loud and charismatic friend dulled down a mere shadow of who he once was.

I didn’t know what I’d do when he decided to turn himself in. Didn’t know even when the day came.

It was like every other time he went out. He sat at the same stool and didn’t move for hours. Things might’ve gone the way they did like they did before, he gets up and goes home, but that Cabal patrol just had to stroll through the street ahead of us.

I saw his head jolt upwards. I knew we heard the same thing. He’d made up his mind long ago. All he needed was that little nudge. 

I stopped him as soon as he got up. Tried to tell him that he wasn’t going to save her even if he did this, that they’d just kill the both of them even if he didn’t give anything up to the Cabal, but you can’t break a stubborn man’s spirit. 

He said he’d be back. He’d get Martha out of there. He’d find a way.

He turned his back to me and started to make his way up the street. I wasn’t thinking, but for a moment my hand rested on my handcannon. All those lives I’d be putting at risk by letting him go piled on me and I-

It would’ve been quick. No one would’ve known I did it. Could’ve said he got captured against his will and hauled off. I said that regardless but-

The action was unthinkable at the time. I’d be putting down a friend like an animal.

I told myself he’d keep his word. He wouldn’t talk.

Cabal patrols picked up the day after. Even if I wanted to reposition our bases and hideouts I never had the chance.

They hit us three weeks later. Cleared three hideouts, one of which was being used as a medbay and a shelter for noncombatants. I doubt he knew about that. I trickled people in there because I figured it’d be the safest place for them.

Flames for the humans and awoken and bullets for the exos. They didn’t care if they weren't fighters or if there were families or...fuck me.

32\. Whenever I hear that number it always takes me back to that. I’m not haunted by what happened anymore, but it’s a reminder.

Like I said, remembering is the least I can do.

I covered for him even though he ratted us out. I told everyone that the Cabal must’ve infiltrated our lines of communication somehow and that Sven had nothing to do with this. They believed me. They trusted the both of us. After all we’d been through, why wouldn’t they?

We found Sven and Martha dumped outside the city with the rest of the bodies when the war was over. I guess the guilt caught up to Sven or maybe Martha convinced him that the price wasn’t worth it to continue on. Either way, at least they were together.

I don’t blame him. I don’t resent him. I know they must’ve done horrible things to her for him to spill. You can’t break a stubborn man’s spirit, but his lover can.

But I don’t want to remember him.

I don’t want to choose between a brother and what’s right again.

Because I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger next time, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when it’s on someone I care about.

I don’t want to know.


End file.
